Muskingum County EMA conducted first test of county’s tornado sirens

ZANESVILLE – The first test was supposed to take place in March but was cancelled to avoid causing any panic related to the pandemic. The only problem from today’s test was with one siren.

“All but one siren went from what we hear and that’s an electrical issue with the siren that’s located on top of the old Zanesville water treatment plant building so the contractor’s already been contacted and we’ll be out there seeing what the problem is. Being that they’re switching buildings, it may be just a matter of we have to move that siren because of the building not being used anymore,” Muskingum County EMA Director Jeff Jadwin said.

As long as the weather isn’t too severe, residents will be able to hear the test every Wednesday at noon moving forward.

“We continue to add more sirens as we get the funding. Still, it’s an outdoor warning system. It’s not for warning you in your house unless you’re real close to the siren. So, we still always recommend that people get hooked up to our reverse 911 system which is hooked in to the National Weather Service so when the National Weather Service puts out alerts, they’ll get those emergency alerts also,” Jadwin said.

If you would like to get emergency notifications, you can sign up at CitizensAlert60.org